Scorpions Eat Spiders

Scorpions Eat Spiders in the Jungles of Guatemala FINCA TATIN, Guatemala- There are a lot of very large spiders that abound just about everywhere in the jungles of Guatemala — in the trees, on the ground, on the walls and ceilings of just about every human made structure. These large spiders tend to come out [...]

FINCA TATIN, Guatemala- There are a lot of very large spiders that abound just about everywhere in the jungles of Guatemala — in the trees, on the ground, on the walls and ceilings of just about every human made structure. These large spiders tend to come out at night. Scorpions come out at night, too. In an interesting interplay of nature, the scorpions eat the spiders. Even though the spiders are often much larger than the scorpions the sting from its tail gives them the terminal advantage: one stab from the tail and the spider is scorpion food.

I saw it happened once:

I was washing my hands at a sink and heard a violent ruslte in the palapa leaf roof over my head. I looked up in time to see a spider and a scorpion fall in tandem onto the sink that was right before me. The scorpion had two spider legs in its mouth, the spider was curled up in a ball, dead.

Photos of a scorpion eating a spider

Scorpion eating a spider

Scorpion eating a spider

A spider that was being eaten by a scorpion

I have noticed a lot of large spiders that are missing their front two legs around the jungles of Guatemala, and I wondered for a couple of months about how this could happen: how was it possible for so many large spiders to be missing their front two legs. The answer now seems simple: scorpions have two claws. In the example that I witnessed, the scorpion snapped off both of the spider’s front two legs with its claws, and was eating them both at the same time. I imagine that the spider may be able to occassionally get away, loosing only a couple appendages in the attack, thus leaving a lot of six legged spiders wandering around in the night.

Scorpion in Guatemala jungle

At night, both the spider and the scorpion are active. They move around my room like pieces on a nocural chess board: the spiders looking for insects to eat, the scorpions remaining still in waiting for a spider to take one errant step: then BAM, it is stabbed with the stinger and legs are snipped off with its claws.

Wade Shepard is the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. He has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. He is the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China, and contributes to The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. Wade Shepard has written 3563 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

We check Petra’s bed each night before she goes to sleep and watch her during the day. It is a worry that she will go after a poisonous or pain providing insect as she likes to grab everything that moves — and insects and other small animals are her favorite.

It is interesting living in the jungle, as you always have to watch where you put your hands and feet, least you get bitten — like the scorpion that got me a few months ago.

I found a spider with no legs in my room the other day. It was still alive, but just barely. I couldn’t find any of its legs anywhere and I still don’t know how it got there. That’s how I stumbled on this site. 🙂

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About Wade Shepard

I’m an itinerant writer who has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. I wrote Ghost Cities of China, a book which chronicles the two years that I spent in China’s new cities, and have another book about the New Silk Road coming out soon. I’m a regular contributor to Forbes, The Guardian, and the South China Morning Post, and I have been featured on BBC World, VICE, NPR Morning Edition, CNBC Squawk Box, CBC The Current … This is my personal blog where I share stories from the road that don’t fit in anywhere else. In other words, this is my daily diary, raw and real — it is not edited or even proofread. Subscribe below.